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Briefs

CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour apologizes for saying killing of British Israelis happened in a ‘shootout’

The CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour apologized on Monday, May 22 for saying in April that the killing of three British Israelis happened in a “shootout.”

Amanpour was referring to the shooting of three members of the Dee family, who were killed in a West Bank terror attack in early April by a Palestinian gunman. Maia and Rina Dee, ages 20 and 15, respectively, were killed, and their mother Lucy, 48, later died of her wounds.

Soon after the attack, Amanpour said on screen that the Dee daughters “were killed in a shootout, and now the mother has died of her injury.” She made the comment amid a recounting of recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which has escalated this year.

Honest Reporting, a pro-Israel media watchdog, tweeted to Amanpour, “you owe a grieving family an apology.”

Rabbi Leo Dee, the husband, and father of the victims, said he was considering suing CNN for $1.3 billion, according to the Jewish Journal. The next day, Amanpour apologized on air.

“During that live interview, I misspoke and said that they were killed in a shootout instead of a shooting,” she said. “I have written to Rabbi Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”

Gil Hoffman, Honest Reporting’s CEO, said that he hopes other journalists who saw his group’s complaint and Amanpour’s apology will be “careful to be completely accurate when they file their own reports.” (JTA)

Israeli minister: Elon Musk is ‘an amazing entrepreneur and role model’

Israel’s foreign minister disavowed his ministry’s condemnation of Elon Musk for saying progressive Jewish megadonor George Soros “hates humanity.” who is at the center of multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories, to a comic book villain. Watchdog groups including the Anti-Defamation League said Musk’s statements encourage antisemitism. Musk later criticized the ADL in another tweet.

Now, a second Israeli minister — who oversees the government’s efforts to combat antisemitism — has gone further in defending Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter whose Soros comments have been condemned by multiple Jewish watchdogs as antisemitic.

Chikli’s statement places him at odds with another segment of Israel’s government. David Saranga, a senior official at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, criticized Musk’s tweets, in a post that was retweeted by his ministry’s official account. (Foreign Minister Eli Cohen later disavowed the retweet, saying, “There will be no more tweets like this.”)

“The term ‘The Jews’ rose to the list of trending topics on Twitter following a tweet with a whiff of antisemitism by none other than the owner and CEO of the social network, Elon Musk,” Saranga wrote. “Musk’s tweet immediately led to a flood of antisemitic conspiracy theories on Twitter.”

Chikli appears to count himself among the set of rightwing Jews who believe that criticism of Soros, a leading donor to the Democratic Party who has furthered progressive causes worldwide, is not necessarily antisemitic.

“Criticism of Soros – who finances the most hostile organizations to the Jewish people and the state of Israel is anything but anti-Semitism, quite the opposite!” Chikli wrote. (JTA)

Austrian police charge 2 men after Hitler speech plays on public train’s loudspeakers

Austrian authorities are searching for two men suspected of blaring a recording of Hitler’s voice and a series of “Heil Hitler” and “Sieg Heil” chants on a public train for about 20 minutes last month.

Vienna’s chief rabbi was on the train and told CNN that the recording started with “strange music, snippets of conversation, and laughter which suddenly turned into a Hitler speech played louder and louder.” The rabbi, Schlomo Hofmeister, tweeted that he was disturbed at how long it took for the train’s conductors to shut off the recordings.

Police said that the men were not employees of the ÖBB, Austria’s federal train service, but that they infiltrated the intercom system via a key that all employees have. Officials believe the suspects played other sounds — a “nonsensical, confusing mix” of children’s songs — on other trains around Vienna the previous week.

train, called the incident “very scary.”

“No conductor, no one came, there was no one to see. We were alone with this madness. ‘Who is driving this train now?’ I asked myself,” Schmidt, who works for the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, told CNN. (JTA)

Protester with Israeli flag storms stage at Waters concert in Frankfurt

Aman rushed the stage and unfurled an Israeli flag at a Roger Waters concert in Frankfurt on Sunday, May 28 in protest of the former Pink Floyd front man’s continued criticism of Israel.

Video circulating on social media showed a group of fans chanting “Am Yisrael Chai” (“The people of Israel live”) while the protester makes it to the main stage, where he lasts a few seconds before security guards chase him away.

Berlin police had been investigating Waters over a costume he has been wearing at concerts for years that includes a long black trench coat with a red armband. Some say the outfit is reminiscent of a Nazi officer uniform and a glorification of the Third Reich, which is outlawed in Germany.

A Berlin police spokesman said that the findings of their investigations would come over the next three months.

Waters, one of the leaders of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, has come under intense scrutiny during his current tour, after the cities of Frankfurt and Munich unsuccessfully attempted to block him from performing.

Representatives from those cities, along with German-Jewish communal leaders and several Jewish organizations around the world, argue that Waters’ criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism. The screen at Waters concerts frequently shows a pig-shaped balloon emblazoned with the logo of an Israeli armaments firm.

Before Waters’ show in Frankfurt, local Jewish groups and politicians gathered for a protest outside the venue hosting the performance, the Festhalle. In November 1938, around 3,000 Jews were taken to the building, where many were beaten before being sent to concentration camps.

Israeli citizens see Elon Musk as an amazing

“As Israel’s minister who’s entrusted on combating anti-Semitism, I would like to clarify that the Israeli government and the vast majority of Israeli citizens see Elon Musk as an amazing entrepreneur and a role model,” tweeted Amichai Chikli, a member of the right-wing Likud Party who also serves as minister of Diaspora affairs.

Chikli’s statement came two days after Musk compared Soros, a billionaire and Holocaust survivor on Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan vor was on the train and “one can only imagine how

The two suspects have been charged by Austrian authorities. Austria, which was the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, has strict laws against pro-Nazi statements and Holocaust denial.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted that at least one Holocaust survivor was on the train and “one can only imagine how they felt.”

Journalist Colette Schmidt, who was also on the

Protesters read aloud the names of Jews who were later rounded up on Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” that many point to as the start of the Holocaust, in 1939. Frankfurt Mayor Mike Josef said, “Hatred of Jews is to be condemned everywhere in our city,” according to the German dpa news agency.

Waters has also enraged critics by juxtaposing the names Anne Frank and Shireen Abu Akleh on the screen at his recent concerts. Abu Akleh was killed on an assignment in the West Bank last year, and the Israeli military apologized last month for her death, after admitting that she was likely hit by fire from an Israeli soldier during a raid.

The Polish city of Krakow canceled a Waters concert last year, after the British rocker came out in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (JTA)